the republicans would be free from their pledge to grover norquist about not raising taxes. and we would be talking about who is going to get some tax relief -- middle-class families, you know, people with children, and other targeted cuts, and the republicans could say, gee, i wanted to give the rich a tax break but we just couldn't get there. but, hey, we helped ow 98% of the people in america. i think we'd be barg frng strength. i'm very worried that we're getting back to where we were two years ago where the president was put in a box or a year ago when the president got put in a box over the republicans threatening to defall on our debt. we need to bargain from a stronger position and going over this bump in the road would give us that. >> as you know, there are a lot of people who would disagree with you about that, not just about the financial numbers per se, say the $200 billion the president is talking act next year, but also from a psychological standpoint. we've already seen wall street reacting in a negative way, concerned exactly about what would happen if a dea